• How Syria Media Advisers Decided Who Would Speak to President Assad
• Turns out Israel urged President Obama to accept Russia’s deal. According to the Wall St. Journal:
On Sept. 11, Mr. Kerry spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said he believed Russia wasn’t bluffing and that a deal was possible, according to American and Middle Eastern officials briefed on the exchange. Israel shared U.S. concerns that strikes could strengthen rebels linked with al Qaeda and allow them to seize Mr. Assad’s weapons.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Der Spiegel, Michael Totten, Jeffrey Goldberg, and Bloomberg News.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• The Egyptian army says it discovered a network of booby traps along the Egypt-Gaza border. AP writes:
In the last 48 hours, he said, troops had discovered explosives laid in tunnels along the border and under Egyptian watchtowers, with detonating wires running back into Gaza.
The same spokesman also said the military destroyed 152 smuggling tunnels since July.
• Jerusalem Post: A bunch of former high-level European officials are calling on Catherine Ashton to be tough with Israel on the settlement guidelines.
• I’m glad to see China thinks of nothing of boycotts. Tel Aviv University and Tsinghua University in China signed an academic collaboration agreement.
(Image of WMD symbols via Wikimedia Commons/Thkrech, soldier via YouTube/Euronews)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
